Jan. 5 (Bloomberg) -- Silicon Valley is beset by the biggest office property glut since the dot-com bust, leaving the U.S. technology hub with empty
high-rises and office parks that make it impossible for landlords to sustain average rents.

More than 43 million square feet (4 million square meters) -- the equivalent of 15 Empire State Buildings -- stood vacant at the end of the third
quarter, the most in almost five years, according to CB Richard Ellis Group Inc. San Jose, Sunnyvale and Palo Alto have 11 empty office buildings with
about 3 million square feet of the best quality space.

“There is a bubble bursting in much the same way as the residential market burst,” said Jon Haveman, principal at Beacon Economics, a consulting
firm in San Rafael, California. “None of those towers will fill up anytime soon.”

Unemployment in the San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara metro area that includes Silicon Valley was 11.8 percent in November, down from the August record
of 12.1 percent, according to California’s Employment Development Department. Applied Materials Inc. and Sun Microsystems Inc. in Santa Clara and
Adobe Systems Inc. in San Jose announced more than 5,000 job cuts since October amid falling sales of computer chips, software and equipment.

Commercial property foreclosures will at least double in 2010 and job growth won’t return for two years after that, held back by U.S. consumers who
are saving more and “getting back in line with sustainable spending habits,” Haveman said.

Domino Effect

Bloated inventory and tight lending standards will curtail office construction in pockets around California for “the next several years,” said
Jack Kyser, founding economist of the Kyser Center for Economic Research at the Los Angeles Economic Development Corp.

“That means there won’t be jobs for construction workers and hence no tax revenue from sales of construction materials,” Kyser said. “It is
the ultimate domino effect.”

...
Silicon Valley is in the “early innings” of a commercial property shakeout, said Erik Doyle, president of Cornish & Carey Commercial, a property
brokerage in Santa Clara.
...

Originally posted by Dbriefed
Just when you think that '2010 will be better than 2009', 'tech is leading the way', etc..

Commercial property is in the early stages of sinking. This is going to sting a little and keep stinging for some time.

STING??????????????? LMAO! STING????????????????? WOW! The US economy is on LIFE SUPPORT! I mean my god! I think the average US person is down
right clueless. People are still acting like we caught an "economic cold" so to speak. We didn't catch a cold people..........we HAVE BEEN
DIAGNOSED WITH STAGE IV cancer!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

While Obama is off vacationing in Hawaii and arguing about our failed intelligence...............the US is in economic crisis.

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